Election Day! We had rented out five locations around the town. Many members could walk to their election meeting.  

Election Day was becoming more routine for us. Head tellers had several years of experience being tellers. New tellers had voted before. So all the workers more or less knew what to do as far as voting administration. But we would be testing the system with our mail-in ballots.

Late in the afternoon, Ed distributed 293 mail-in ballots to the head tellers of each sector.  

"That was more than I expected," he said, "But we are getting a lot more people to vote. I hope this is the last year we use my mailing address for the TDG."

And the five sectors collectively reported 402 in-person voters between them.

"That gives us a voter turnout of 68%," reported Ed. "We even had more in-person voting than usual. I think the neighborhood locations helped. And people socialized after."

The vote counting went well. We had 48 spoiled ballots, which was higher than usual. Most were mail-in ballots that voted for someone outside their designated neighborhood.

Twenty-eight of the 34 representatives were re-elected.

Pete Williams, our treasurer, was not re-elected. This was not the first time an executive committee member lost a neighborhood election. Our tradition was to allow that member to serve out the remainder of the term on the executive committee, which is another six months.

As the former treasurer, I will say that Pete has been doing a fine job as treasurer of Riverbend TDG those past six months. But his departure gives someone else experience in the TDG—and Pete can take his TDG experience to other facets of his community, social, and workplace lives. And the TDG may find other tasks for him later!

Holger Peters was another neighborhood representative not to be re-elected. He was in the hospital.

For the next few months, Francy and I continued our forays into the two nightclubs. We saw the two football fellows occasionally, but there was no interest in further action from them. And we kept our "Francy's Balance" going with other men.

Then one Saturday evening, I met Daniel at Spin City. He was a Latin fellow who was new to Riverbend. We hit it off really well. He sure could make me laugh. He taught me some Spanish. When we went dancing, I showed him a simple cheerleader routine, and he easily caught on. Everyone was watching us on the dance floor. I took Daniel home that night. Francy found another fellow and spent the night at his place. So Daniel and I had the whole apartment to ourselves. And we made love like I had never made love before.

I made him breakfast in the late morning, and we talked for another hour. We exchanged phone numbers and promised to send text messages. He gave me the best good-bye kiss ever.

When Francy got home, she could see that I was in love. The first time since Keegan!

I thought Daniel would text me later that afternoon. Then the evening.

Then I thought he would next Monday morning. Then Monday afternoon.

By noon on Tuesday, I could no longer wait. So I phoned him: NUMBER NOT IN SERVICE.

I was devastated. I called in sick that afternoon.

When Francy came home, she saw my emotional state: "We should get a few questions answered."  

So we went to Spin City and found a table of Latin young people. Yes, they knew Daniel. He was visiting relatives in Riverbend. No, he was not in Riverbend any more. On Sunday, the film production company he worked for called him back to Los Angeles. No, he is not coming back.

I had been played BIG TIME.